Late Start
We’re planning on doing a little gaming this Sunday morning but we’re going to get a late start so it may be just one or two delves. My hope is to meet more gamers overall - folks I will see at Gencon or perhaps around the Northern Virginia area.
Yesterday I did an gamer interview with Gamer Zero and Blue. When they asked me what I fear most with 4e I mentioned my greatest fear and the greatest problem I think any tabletop RPG faces: social isolation. I know there are a lot of folks who want to play D&D but can’t find a group. It can be pretty tough. We’re all a little introverted already so trying to meet five strangers and put together a group can be pretty tough. I’m lucky that I’ve had four really excellent gaming groups over the years but each of them was separated with a pretty significant gap of time when I didn’t play because I didn’t have a group.
There are two things that Wizards has done to help with this: RPGA and D&D Insider.
My problem with RPGA is that it seems more statistical than role playing. There are stories but the stories are secondary to the encounters. We had a really great DM yesterday but I remember him describing a town square by the location of difficult terrain. There wasn’t any discussion about what we should do with the scroll or what sort of information we could get out of the bribed town guards.
D&D Insider is another method but if I’m going to sit in front of my computer, I think I’d rather play WoW. D&D is a game for a table of friends. I know folks do play by post or other games over the net but if I have a hard time getting a group for an instance in WoW, I can’t imagine how tough it will be to get a group for a five hour campaign. I’m glad they’re trying but I’d like to see more options to get local gamers together.
Anyway, that is my greatest fear: that my groups will break up and I won’t find another way to play the game that I love.
My wife and I are planning to head back to the Delve at about 11am. I’ll post more then. Also, expect a weekend recap sometime over the next couple of days before the DDXP blog is complete.
Mike
4 months ago